Thursday, April 22, 2010

Microsoft is outsourcing its IT help desk, PC, infrastructure and application support to Bangalore, India-based Infosys in a three-year deal that involves 450 Microsoft locations in 104 countries.

Terms of the deal, announced today by Infosys, were not disclosed but in an interview, Anand Nataraj, Infosys VP and unit head of infrastructure management services suggested the deal was substantial. "It's a fairly large deal," he said. "It's a major win."

Nataraj said Microsoft has tapped Infosys to implement ISO 20000 and ITSM Processes -- a set of best practices aimed at providing effective IT service management and meeting customer requirements.

The pact will involve the transition of work now performed by other partners and is not intended at displacing work done by Microsoft, according to Nataraj. "There is no job loss for Microsoft per se," he said. Microsoft for years has used offshore service providers to manage its infrastructure, applications, help desk and desktop support.

Infosys is subcontracting the PC support to Unisys. A Unisys spokesman said the company has been tapped to provide support for 120,000 employees worldwide. "This is a pretty large deal for us in terms of scope and the number of end users we are supporting," the spokesman said.

While Infosys had already been doing some work for Microsoft, Nataraj said 90 percent of the business is new to the company.

For Infosys, business is on the rise: the company today said revenues for the quarter ended on March 31 generated $1.3 billion -- a 5.2 percent increase over the same period last year and a 15 percent increase over the prior quarter. Net income of $349 million for the quarter reflected a year-over-year increase of 8.7 percent, Infosys said.

"We have been able to take advantage of the opportunities in the market and grow faster due to our investments in capacity and capability building even during the economic downturn," said Infosys CEO and managing director S. Gopalakrishnan in a statement.

Infosys is forecasting that its revenues will grow from 16 to 18 percent for the year and for 18.5 to 19.4 percent for the current quarter, year-over-year.